The Politics of Design

Keyword Archives: image

Left: cover of the first issue. Image by Isaac Kariuki. Right: From the series Weaponise The Internet. Image by Isaac Kariuki.

Diaspora Drama is a magazine from the U.K. dedicated to ‘offbeat creative and cool people of colour on the internet.’ It explores the identities of the children of the diaspora, young artists outside of the mold of Western society who use cyberspace to work outside the dominant narratives. Editor in chief Isaac Kariuki introduces the magazine by saying, ‘We’ll observe just how impactful cyberspace is to our generation and the safe spaces created by and for people of colour to help them navigate through life.’ The first issue features artists like Tabita Rezaire, Hassan Hajjaj, interviews with M.I.A.’s personal photographer, and future Kurdish superstar Cany Dilan. The magazine is 100% contributor based, and physical copies can be bought online via www.diasporadrama.com. Each issue comes with a ‘Punx of Colour’ mixtape.

If you ever played a videogame you are familiar with the limited amount of choice in characters. Female gamers are used to being forced to play a male character, and usually characters have a white skin. Recently game developers have responded to the lack of diversity in games by creating game characters that better reflect society’s diversity. Rust is a first-person survival game created in 2014 by Facepunch studios from the UK. Originally all game characters were bald white men, but then developer Garry Newman decided to change this. Now every player is assigned a random character, which could be black, or white, male or female. The assigned character is used the entire game. The update immediately sparked outrage, particularly amongst white male players. Female players were more pragmatic. Newman, ‘They point out that they’ve already being play Rust as men for the past two years.’

India celebrated international women’s day by introducing a gender equality stamp. Designed by Mirko Ilić, the stamps can be combined to creat images of faces made up from different genders. This is especially remarkable since India ranks 127 of 142 in the gender inequality index. Only 15% of women are employed in the formal sector. female participation in the workforce has actually declined since 1988. India has a so-called sticky floor, the majority of women cannot rise above a certain level of earnings, skills, and benefits. The high-level committee on status of women, formed in 2012 by the government of India, aims to increase gender equality and has recommended 50% seat share for women in government and laws that prevent violence against women.